I was away from the car for a month so I had spent a lot of time designing the adjustable pedal box in CAD. I got to spend some time with the car this past week and the CAD fantasy didn’t fit reality. Specifically, the Front Suspension Race Cage wasn’t were it was supposed to be. I’m sure my initial measurements were correct so the high humidity must have warped the monocoque and cage - LOL.
After an appropriate amount of profanity, I realized that the structure was significantly overbuilt for my needs and that it could be easily modified. However, to do that I needed to remove the interior tub which meant that the body, six-point roll cage and dashboard needed to be removed… and then I realized that the steering column also needed to be removed. So I went from something that looked like a car to the following.
The Front Suspension Race Cage adds a lot of structure. The left and right sides are symmetrical and each has the following connections:
Eight 3/8” screws through the floor.
Four 3/8” screws through the transverse beam in the top of the monocoque and into the front hoop’s mounting plates.
Six 3/8” screws through the monocoque and into the upper control arm and shock absorber brackets. Hex nuts are welded to the plate which means that you don’t need a second person to keep the nut from spinning when removing or installing the brackets.
One 5/8” screw through the billet lower control arm bracket.
Two screws through the interlocking tube couplers that affix the removable side impact bars.
The horizontal tube in the lower right corner captures the 5/8” screw that mounts the lower control arm in the billet bracket. Note that the standard removable side impact bar option would reduce this piece to just the vertical tube, top/bottom plates and interlocking tube connectors on the left.
The bottom 1-1/2” of the tube and plate were cut in half to provide clearance for the sliding pedal box assembly.
A 1/8” gusset and end cap were welded to the notched section.
While this change reduces the strength of the tube I’m not concerned because the monocoque is already stiff and very few cars have this structure at all. The next step is to mock the sliding pedal box.